IBT Staff Reporter

A defiant Silvio Berlusconi vowed on Wednesday to see out his term as Italian Prime Minister until 2013, saying he was unworried by an order to stand trial for abuse of power and paying for sex with an underage girl.

Protesters in Bahrain, emboldened by revolts that have toppled Arab rulers in Tunisia and Egypt, poured into the Gulf island kingdom's capital on Wednesday to mourn a demonstrator killed in clashes with security forces.

Anti-government protests inspired by popular revolts that toppled rulers in Tunisia and Egypt are gaining pace around the Middle East and North Africa despite political and economic concessions by nervous governments.

South Africa's rand jumped more than 1.5 percent against the dollar in late trade on Wednesday, helped by an aggressive sell-off in the U.S. currency and better-than-expected local data.

Consumer prices in Rwanda fell for the seventh straight month in January, largely on the cost of vegetables and fish, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) said on Wednesday.

South Sudan will consider building new pipelines if it finds fresh oil reserves after independence, an official said, a move that could anger Khartoum if the route avoids the north through which exports now flow.

Cocoa prices at the farmgate in Ivory Coast are falling sharply and farmers are fast running out of money, with potentially damaging consequences for the cocoa mid-crop, farmers said on Wednesday.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Wednesday criticized a group of customs officers for a video clip they posted on YouTube celebrating the lavish lifestyle they say comes with their government jobs.

Comcast Corp reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings as it benefited from surging ad sales and signed up customers to higher-priced cable, voice and broadband packages.

Some workers ignored a call by military rulers to return to work on Wednesday, and a committee hammered out changes in Egypt's constitution to pave the way for democracy to replace 30 years of Hosni Mubarak's iron rule.

A U.S. judge sentenced a Somali pirate to 33 years and nine months in prison on Wednesday for his role in the 2009 seizure of the Maersk Alabama container ship and two other vessels in the Indian Ocean.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood probably does not favor its country's peace treaty with Israel, but its views are not uniform and it will be only one voice in Egypt's emerging political lineup, the top U.S. intelligence official told a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Shares of Dell Inc jumped 11 percent on Wednesday, a day after the world's no. 2 personal computer maker reported strong quarterly profits, allaying the fears of sustainability of its margins.

If the talk at this week's Mobile World Congress fair has been dominated by Nokia and Microsoft's new venture, Google's Android has been the center of the action.

Stock index futures rose on Wednesday after estimate-beating results from Dell and a deal for Sanofi-Aventis to buy Genzyme for $20.1 billion in cash.

Comedy Central and MTV Networks announced the inaugural presentation of the Comedy Awards. They described it as the first-ever multi-network, multi-platform, annual event dedicated to honoring and celebrating the world of comedy.

Clay Aiken, the American singer, songwriter, actor, producer, and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of a television program American Idol in 2003, has listed his mansion outside Raleigh, NC on the market for $2,700,000.

Workforce management software firm ClickSoftware Technologies expects annual sales growth to surpass 20 percent in coming years and profit to improve on new mobility and cloud computing products.

UAE telecoms operator Etisalat, which is looking to buy a controlling stake in Kuwait's Zain, sees at least a 60 percent chance of sealing the deal once the due diligence has been completed.

U.S. core producer prices in January rose to their highest rate in more than two years, hinting at a build-up in inflation pressures as the recovery gathers pace, a potentially troubling development for the Federal Reserve.

Nokia's software pact with Microsoft allows it to tweak user interface on its phones, but it has no such plans, Nokia's technology chief Rich Green told a developer conference on Wednesday.

Corrects net income figure to $514 mln in paragraph 2

U.S. stocks advanced on Wednesday after stronger-than-expected Dell earnings and a flurry of deal news.

Toyota Motor inaugurated its first new factory in Japan in nearly two decades on Wednesday, betting that advanced, low-cost Japanese production techniques can prevail even as a strong yen drives many manufacturers abroad.

Chancellor Angela Merkel picked her aide Jens Weidmann as German central bank chief to succeed Axel Weber, officials said on Wednesday, making it less likely she will insist on a German running the European Central Bank.

A video shown at the retirement part for the Israeli Chief of Staff may have revealed that Israel was behind the Stuxnet worm.

General Motors Co is recalling over 44,000 Cadillac CTS sedans for a flaw that could cause one of the rear wheels to become unstable.

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc's Xoom tablet will sell for an unsubsidized $799 at Verizon Wireless, with WiFi-only version priced at around $600 price, chief executive Sanjay Jha said on Wednesday.

German carmaker Daimler posted disappointing fourth-quarter earnings, with an upbeat outlook failing to deliver the detail that analysts said was needed to reassure investors.